New Laptop... BF2/PR problems

[lunchbox311]

Hello.

My friend just recieved a new laptop. It is an HP pavillion 92XX with the following specs that I can remember.

Core2Duo processor 2.13 Ghz I believe
512 MB NVIDIA Geforce Go 7600 graphics card
2 gigs of ram
160 gb hard drive
Vista Home Premium

He bought it for gaming and so far he has loaded 2 games
FEAR and BF2 (he plays PR at my house and wants to do it on his laptop so he bought one to do it on)

FEAR plays flawlessly but BF2 crashed at startup... it loads then crashes to desktop with no warning or anything it does not even get to a main screen.. just splash loading screen (the one that says BF2) then blackscreen then desktop

We tried the following things:

got latest drivers we could find on internet (took a while)
Uninstall-reinstall
Set to run on one core
Run as administrator
Run in compatibility for XP

None of these things worked

I am computer savvy (I have a degree in CIS) but my friend is not
I am not familiar with Vista (and that was the ONLY choice he had or we would have gone with XP)

Any suggestions would be helpful. He wants to play PR badly (motivation!)

[[R-DEV]Cheeseman]

Before anything, tell you friend to install the latest NVIDIA GO drivers from the laptop/notebooks official website. Another alternative would be to download drivers from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/

Now hers how to Install and Run the game under Vista:

First install Battlefield 2, then install BF2 Patch v1.41, then install PR V0.5.
After the installation is over, right click on the BF2 or PR icon and go to properties/compatibility and chose under "Compatibility mode" "Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows Xp (Service Pack 2)". You also need to check mark "Run this Program as an administrator".

FYI: I know you guys already did the compatibility and run and administrator, but I'm mentioning it again cause its a crucial step which needs to be taken on Vista(even though the game still crashed for your friend).

Also does Vanilla Battlefield 2 work without crashing to desktop? or is it only PR?
If it crashes on both Vanilla Battlefield 2 and PR then it has to be either his refresh rate which needs to be changed or resolution.
The defaults to run BF2 should be 800x600@60Hz.
Hers mine for example:

[lunchbox311]

Thank you for the suggestion about the resolution. I will pass it on...along with all the other information. We will try to work it all out tomorrow evening.

I will update whether it helped or not.

[lunchbox311]

He tried those thing suggested... refresh rate and all; with no avail.

I seem to be lost, like I said it does the splash screen then crashes out completely with no errors, no log messages, or any other sign of trouble.

[[R-DEV]Cheeseman]

Some HP notebooks have bad LCD Panels and are set to 58Hz or 59Hz refresh rate. And as I mentioned before, Battlefield 2s bad coding will only work with 60Hz+ refresh rate so that kinda screws the HP people over. Will don't be disappointed, I searched and I stumbled across something; try this step by step and BF2 should work.

Right click desktop: NVIDIA display: Laptop display

Under the extended options tab (if you aren't seeing options click the green button with an arrow on it and it should go out to the left)

Click: "Screen Resolutions & Refresh Rates"

There you can click "add" under "custom resolutions and refresh rates"

I suggest creating a custom resolution for the default starting resolution of BF2 and then customizing the refresh rate to 60hz. (Then add it to your desktop's default res. as well) Click OK. click Apply. Click OK to exit.

Now goto desktop and right click and goto properties... select the resolution that you customized: click advanced: monitor tab: 60hz: apply: ok

Your screen should flicker and you should now be display 60hz.

[.:iGi:. Eggenberg4Ever]

Make sure no virtual drives are running (esp. Alcohol 120%).
Daemon is ok as long as all emulation options are ticked but BF2 DOES NOT like Alcohol120% drives running.

[lunchbox311]

Cheeseman, yes his laptop has a retarded 59hz only refresh rate. We will try this and see what happens.


Eggenberg, he is not running alcohol or any other virtual drive things. For the record though, I run Alcohol 120% problem free with Battlefield 2.


Thanks for the suggestions guys, I do appreciate them. I will update again as to what happens. Worst case we send the stupid laptop back.

[lunchbox311]

Well we tried to change the resolution with a custom one but the options are just NOT THERE. We looked at every setting in the display area and could not find a setting for it.

Do you know of any specific drivers for the go 7600 that could display these settings?

[.:iGi:. Eggenberg4Ever]

Have you tried changing the drivers to a modded set?
This site: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?
is THE best for drivers for laptops. You could try installing coolbits for nVidia cards: it opens up more options and also the overclocking tool for nVidia cards.

BTW: my copy of BF2 just won't run if there's Alcohol virtual drives enabled. No way; no how.

[[R-DEV]Cheeseman]

Sorry, but I don't have a NVIDIA laptop/notebook anymore (which has Vista installed). My present notebook is ATI based so I can't really provide a Vista guide on how to change the NVIDIA refresh rate at present time. Your friend can always give back the laptop and get a new one, but there is a chance he might get another one with the same refresh rate (HP laptops tend to have this issue). As I stated before you can always go to http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ and get a moded NVIDIA driver. With these drivers you’ll get the ability to set custom refresh rates, which could fix the problem. Also make sure your friend checks the HP website for any BIOS updates, cause this problem can easily be solved by a BIOS update.